VOL. 51 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 26, 2014 P73
of Jake Shoemaker. Jake Johnson was
third, making it a Kawasaki sweep of the
Mega Mile podium in front of a packed
house.
The win moved Smith back into the
Grand National Championship points
lead by six points, 224-218, over Jared
Mees, who finished fifth in Virginia.
While the top six riders in the series still
have at least a mathematical chance to
win the championship, with three rounds
to go – Springfield, Calistoga and Po-
mona - realistically the title comes down
to three riders – Smith, Mees and John-
son (who has 206 points).
Smith was dominant all day. He was
so strong in the first couple of timed
sessions that he and his team elected
to sit out the final timed qualifying ses-
sion to preserve the bike. That allowed
Johnson, on the Ramspur Winery/Lloyd
Bros. Ducati, to clock the best lap in
combined timed qualifying, but trouble
was brewing for Johnson. The clutch on
his ultra-fast Ducati fried in his heat race
and with a compressed schedule due to
Briefly...
the Springfield Mil. "I broke T5 and
6 in my back and broke the bone
going to my pinky in my [left] hand
and had to have a plate in there and
another bone in my pinky," Addison
explained. "That was the one that
gave me the most trouble." Addison
also suffered a concussion in the in-
famous crash that saw his Kawasaki
go into a violent tank slapper at the
end of Springfield's front straight-
away and flick him off at high speed,
the bike flipping and demolishing it-
self in the process. Addison said he
wasn't able to train for a month and
a half after the Memorial Day week-
end crash. He got his back brace off
only two weeks ago and it was then
that he was able to get back to a full
regiment of training. "I don't remem-
ber the accident itself and vaguely
anything that happened a couple of
weeks afterwards."
Rain was approaching the New
Kent, Virginia, area on race day and
AMA Pro Racing officials decided to
abbreviate the program, shorten
the mains and run the Grand Nation-
al first in an effort to get everything
in. That's why the National was only
15 laps.
Even though the Grand National main
was reduced to 15 laps, five bikes
still broke in the final. Cory Texter,
Stevie Bonsey, Jeffrey Carver, Jr.
and Johnny Lewis all DNF'd. Brad
Baker's factory Harley also blew up,
but he was able to coast across the
line to finish the race.
It was a good day for KTM riders up
until the final. Jake Lewis and Jeremy
Higgins both won their heat races on
KTMs, while Shawn Baer was third in
his heat. Lewis got the holeshot and
Wells, who
finished sixth.
In his come-
back race from
injury, J.R.
Addison (24F)
edged series
leader Kyle
Johnson (77J)
to win the Pro
Singles main.
Joe Kopp (3) and Johnny Lewis (10) battle
for the holeshot in the National. The semi-
retired Kopp actually led two laps on the
Latus Motors Triumph.
continued on next page
